Tim Blair

Tim Blair
–,
Friday,
October,
16,
2009,(5:17am)

Safety experts, worried that hybrids pose a threat if pedestrians, children and others can’t hear them approaching, want automakers to supply some digitally enhanced vroom. Indeed, just as cellphones have ring tones, “car tones” may not be far behind — an option for owners of electric vehicles to choose the sound their cars emit.

Tim Blair
–,
Thursday,
October,
15,
2009,(1:47pm)

Which public figure can be quoted as having said something bigoted and disgusting and it doesn’t matter whether he did or not because he might have? Who can Big Media brand a racist without checking the facts? Who has to prove he did not say something racist, rather than the accuser proving he did?

A pat on the back for anyone who guessed the answer: Rush Limbaugh …

The irony is, of course, that the people reporting this as fact are the same types who are always denouncing bloggers and the internet as forces of evil intent on destroying proper journalism – proper journalism being the kind that involves checking facts.

Note the attribution: “On the radio”. Got a date for that, CNN? Hmm?

In the case of Rush Limbaugh, however, it seems to be enough that the intention (i.e. to show the talk radio host is a racist) is considered pure.

Harnden notes a classic evasion from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Bryan Burwell, one of many who fell for the invented Rushisms:

He states that the quote seemed “so in character with the many things that Limbaugh has said before that we didn’t verify it …”

Tim Blair
–,
Thursday,
October,
15,
2009,(12:04pm)

The World March for Peace and Nonviolence began a couple of weeks ago in New Zealand and aims to end up in the Andes by January 10. During its journey, the “biggest world march ever known to mankind” recently stormed Bondi Beach:

Tim Blair
–,
Thursday,
October,
15,
2009,(4:15am)

Since 1998, we bad humans have horked up some 120,000,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the sky. Actually, that’s just China, the US and Britain. The global total of human-caused carbon since ‘98 is probably around 300,000,000,000 tonnes. Which is only about five per cent of all the carbon produced, which means the total amount generated over 11 years is something like 6,000,000,000,000 tonnes.

People should use the climate change crisis as an opportunity to become human again, setting aside the addictive and self-destructive behaviour that has damaged their souls, the Archbishop of Canterbury said today.

This holy beardo doesn’t seem to have heard that there ain’t no change and there ain’t no crisis. Let us now please return to the delightfully addictive and self-destructive damaging of souls.

Tim Blair
–,
Thursday,
October,
15,
2009,(3:28am)

I must have missed the box you tick on tax forms so you can opt out of donating to this “free” service. As things stand, we’re currently delivering annual base funding of $698.7 million to Australia’s only compulsory subscription multi-media outfit.

Tim Blair
–,
Thursday,
October,
15,
2009,(1:27am)

“You can’t export an American car to China,” according to warmenist genius Sir Nicholas Stern. “It does not satisfy the emissions standards.” And Al Gore agrees. But what if an American car – a particularly large American car – becomes a Chinese car?

Hummer, the off-road vehicle that once epitomized America’s love for hulking trucks, is now in the hands of a Chinese heavy equipment maker.

Tim Blair
–,
Wednesday,
October,
14,
2009,(1:01pm)

Matt Welch: “The defeat of communism 20 years ago was the most liberating moment in history. So why don’t we talk about it more?” Yes. Today’s column touches on this, via Ronald Reagan and the Cold War.

So where are these racist soundbites? Where’s the audio? Where’s the transcript? Name the year. Heigh-ho, say CNN’s Rick Sanchez and the rest of the basement-ratings crowd. Not our problem: It’s for Limbaugh to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he’s never said it. We’re too busy fact-checking anti-Obama jokes to fact-check our own reporting ...